Spa is going to look significantly different this year!

[dans79]

https://www.racefans.net/2022/03/22/new ... tion-work/

The circuit operators have spent £20.7 million (€25m) on alterations to the venue which will host the Belgian Grand Prix in August. The changes are intended to retain the character of one of Formula 1’s most cherished and demanding circuits while improving safety standards for car and bike races.

Significant earthworks have allowed more run-off space to be created at the famed Eau Rouge and Raidillon complex. The extremely fast sequence has been the scene of several serious incidents in recent years including Anthoine Hubert’s fatal crash in 2019.

[Hoffman900]

Cool. Anything that keeps it a viable venue for future events.

[McL-H]

The runoff takes away the entire challenge of the corner. I understand they are making changes… but they should’ve put gravel there. With this there is zero risk for messing up the corner. I am not a fan of the development I have been witnessing at tracks towards runoff. It ruins entire tracks and now it is ruining Eau Rouge too. Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

[Hoffman900]

The runoff takes away the entire challenge of the corner. I understand they are making changes… but they should’ve put gravel there. With this there is zero risk for messing up the corner. I am not a fan of the development I have been witnessing at tracks towards runoff. It ruins entire tracks and now it is ruining Eau Rouge too. Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

I disagree with this entirely and believe me, messing it up as it is will still wreck a car, it just won’t throw it back into the path of other cars.

[Big Tea]

I always loved (the original form) bus stop. it sorted the men from the boys, but probably no way to sort it and keep it safe

[dans79]

The runoff takes away the entire challenge of the corner. I understand they are making changes… but they should’ve put gravel there. With this there is zero risk for messing up the corner. I am not a fan of the development I have been witnessing at tracks towards runoff. It ruins entire tracks and now it is ruining Eau Rouge too. Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

At the speed they take the turn, I think gravel would probably cause a wheel to dig in and send a car rolling, The fia is going to avoid that at all costs.

Also, if you take a look at the top right of the photo i posted it almost looks like the runoff has rumble strips perpendicular to the line of travel. If so that's really going to punish a driver for leaving the track!

[ENGINE TUNER]

The runoff takes away the entire challenge of the corner. I understand they are making changes… but they should’ve put gravel there. With this there is zero risk for messing up the corner. I am not a fan of the development I have been witnessing at tracks towards runoff. It ruins entire tracks and now it is ruining Eau Rouge too. Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

Yeah, there should be land mines, spikes and a moat with alligators since every other sport places things that can hurt the competitors just out of bounds.

The challenge is the same, just have to penalize them for going out of bounds. At the speeds of this corner complex going off will almost certainly mean a touch with the wall. Gravel unfairly penalizes drivers who are forced off or who have to go off track to avoid a collision into a disabled car. It also poses another risk for drivers to cut a tire or even break a finger. Paved run off has been proven as a much better solution than gravel. And it only changes the challenge in your head, not in reality.

[izzy]

I thought the problem was the left-hander at the top, more than the right-hander.

[Just_a_fan]

Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

It's like someone has never heard of Antoine Hubert.

[dans79]

I thought the problem was the left-hander at the top, more than the right-hander.

They want to avoid people hitting the barrier and or loosing control, and then getting shot back across the track.

[Steven]

There's also a much wider grass area on the left hand side of old pit straight (between La Source and Eau Rouge)

Drivers should be punished for driving over the limit.

It's like someone has never heard of Antoine Hubert.

I'm also supporting a time penalty rather than one paid with a life.

[izzy]

I thought the problem was the left-hander at the top, more than the right-hander.

They want to avoid people hitting the barrier and or loosing control, and then getting shot back across the track.

Yes this is my point really, that the biggest problem is when a car hits the right hand barrier at the top and bounces back into the track at the top of the hill, out of sight. So I can see that a couple of those glanced off the left side barrier first and as you say it shot them across into the opposite barrier. And now they've extended there and made the barrier more oblique so they have a heavier impact there but don't get deflected.

Still, for all that work they only seem to have helped a small minority of scenarios. Of course at the top they have the hillside falling away on the right, which limits the runoff.

Edit: okay if I'm seeing it right they have been extending that right-side runoff too:
https://cdn-9.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... rk-i-1.jpg

[RZS10]

Here is an onboard on their youtube channel



I wonder whether they have changed T11 overall (with more camber?) and neither of the layouts is the old one or if they just added the alternative inside line


edit: there's no change

[AeroDynamic]

the irony about increasing safety obsessively, is you make the drivers feel more comfortable to take more risks. If somebody crashes at Monaco, do we change that too? these tracks have been fine for such a long time.

Jeddah definitely has some dangerous blind spots but changing the final corner didn't make much sense to me, it proved a healthy challenge to take the corner and keep it out the wall.

they could've solved Spa with a nice big gravel trap there. but no lets keep adding run off areas so people can go off track and just come back on and continue, unpunished.

[dans79]

Still, for all that work they only seem to have helped a small minority of scenarios. Of course at the top they have the hillside falling away on the right, which limits the runoff.

Edit: okay if I'm seeing it right they have been extending that right-side runoff too:
https://cdn-9.motorsport.com/images/mgl ... rk-i-1.jpg

The topography of that section of the track has really limited their ability to make it safer without a substantial expenditure.

I think The Hubert crash basically lead to some back door conversations, that amounted to little more than you will loose the race if you don't fix this.

After all the incident was triggered by Alessi losing it and going off to the left and then he and debrief getting shot back onto the racing line. Boschung & Hubert went right to avoid him and everyone knows what happened after that!